A nightmare of PK happened again to Three Lions – England lost to Italy at yesterday’s EURO 2012 quarter final, after frustrating 120 minutes of 0-0 score and heartbreaking several minutes of penalty shootout. England fans’ expectation to their team was rather low before EURO 2012 started, as former manager Fabio Capello left the team this February and new manager Roy Hodgson who appointed just in May didn’t have enough time to build up the team. On contrary to the pessimistic prediction, England managed to finish top of Group D, and a fan’s hope came back. The game with Italy was the most watched event on TV in 8 years since when England lost to Portugal in EURO 2004 (…again with PK), with the 23.2 million peak audience. This number beat the 19.9 million peak achieved by last year’s Royal Wedding (BBC news).

Since England’s first penalty shoot-out in 1990, England have played eight big international matches which have gone to a penalty kick shootout, but the team won only once (englandfootballonline.com). In compare, Argentina (73%) and Germany (71%) are the top two countries with highest penalty shootout win/loss record. Italy has only 33%, but double of England’s 17% (penaltyshootouts.co.uk). The team seems to be traumatised by the past results, but unless the players mentally train themselves and overcome their fear of PK, the glory of 1966 may never happen again…

Azzurri fans celebrating after the game near Bar Italia in SOHO. There were police officers behind us in case of disorder. In Bedford, where 1 out of 5 residents are Italians, there was an incident that England fans attacked Italians (BBC)